Seasonal Events

[Szczuku]

Seasonal events like Christmas, Hallowen or Chinease New Year are pretty cool. 

Yet we can't ignore the fact that they halt the progress of the main game, even if only a little. After all they happen one after another. So Klei has to put their efforts first into Hallowed Nights, then into Winter's Feast Eve and then into Chinease New Year. Yes, This year we didn't end up with 3 months of 'useless' limited time content since Wurt and Hook, Line and Inker arrived. But, for example, if Klei had decided not to make YotC then we could have already had the next character reworked by now. After all YotC was supposed to last till half of February, yet it's still active. This means that Klei doesn't want to end this event without having an update ready, which means that they don't have that update ready, which means they need more time- that they could've got by not making YotC.

I believe that it'd be better if Klei stopped updaing these events and kept them as they are in-game while still making new skins. Or they could continue to update them but with a content that's easy to make: A mob reskin like Winter's Feast giants, a 'new' mob that's also pretty much a reskin like those Chinease New Year fish.

Discuss

[Well-met]

Excellent topic, and I do have a feeling RoT would likely be in a better state if it weren't for the 3 seasonal events in a row, or maybe even we'd have Wendy by now.

Not to mention the event mechanics seem to be getting deeper and more involved each year (holiday cooking and serving, mob racing).

And honestly the item reskins are getting endless and too much for granted at the expense of gameplay-affecting content.

[reverentsatyr]

I also think Klei should cut back on the seasonal events. I think they should just cycle the old content for Halloween and Christmas instead of putting the effort into new content. If Klei wants likes to work on seasonal content, then Chinese New Year would be the best since the animal changes every year.

[ArubaroBeefalo]

i think they make the game more active. Klei needs players playing the game not only buying it and this its a good way to recover player attention. 

And they are improving each event like adding stuff to winter fest or making year of the pig minigame a default minigame+pigs elite

Also, year of the carrats was so fun

[MondayNight]

Let's be frank here, while indeed Special Events do take some time with their yearly "refurbishing", they are 3 in number and time-wise range from late October to mid-late January. That means roughly 4 months given-or-taken (1 month in advance for actual work, sans 1 month of factual event unfolding). Rest of 8? Not so much. Plus mentioned "refurbishings" weren't really so "intense". Thus if you're looking for a "culprit", this ain't it. Over the years another observation arises regarding how Klei operates: work-flow and time management plus general planning - they seem faulty. And one more thing am afraid of: that RoT doesn't actually have a heart/core to it, but was rather born from general desire of "broadly update DST with something to further maintain interest in it". I hope am wrong yet "the little things, underlining aspects, le plethora of small faults" continue to bug me for one.

[Thalkas]

Something around year ago I wrote about summer seasonal event. I know we don't have (probably, but I don't know about all countries) any real typical summer holiday but would be nice to get "imagine" one. At this moment we have 3 events in same time - between October and February - and rest year is empty with events. So I think making summer event as constant's holiday isn't really bad idea. I wish it could allow to not making players boring between updates.

For example May-July "Hot and Spicy" event with grillin' and chillin' in sunshine under beach umbrella with coconut drink, hunting palm treeguard (with coconuts as drop), playing with friends in beach volleyball or dodgeball (something similar to throwing rawling in Shipwrecked).

For me doesn't matter that Klei want to update seasonals but they will have one content to turn on every year and "buying" some more time for creating new content for normal game.

10 minutes ago, x0-VERSUS-1y said:

And one more thing am afraid of: that RoT doesn't actually have a heart/core to it, but was rather born from general desire of "broadly update DST with something to further maintain interest in it". I hope am wrong yet "the little things, underlining aspects, le plethora of small faults" continue to bug me for one.

Agree in 100%, RoT is made for being made, for adding something more. I don't feel like I must to use content from RoT, because I don't need it and RoT adding things which we don't need for anything more. Sea is empty, we have just one island, no flora and fauna. At this moment we don't know for what is RoT, whats the plan of RoT. RoT should be new chapter after ANR but ANR closed DST in really great way and RoT trying to open closed game. I can understand Klei want to make DST alive, but I feel like they don't have bigger idea how to do it with RoT. ANR had great lore and background, new protagonist (Charlie), her story, reference to ancient civilization and shadows. It was continuation for story. When RoT doesn't have protagonist (I think it second chapter with Charlie but we don't know, no one confirm it), reference to broken moon but we don't now what's wrong with moon, why it is broken. We still don't know what's happend to ancient civilization because their story was cutted. 

[1v0]

I will have to write not just vote on this one . I like the events, I even enjoy them. But they are fun only for a bit (the rats for example, it was fun unit me and my wife maxed them out... and my carrat aways won...), I like them but I think Klei should focus more on base content/new features.

For me the perfect option will be - smaller events/event updates but keep the base content updates flowing, As it is - I don't like that 1 month that is focused on the events, because a few day after the event it's already boring. That means that 1 month is just few days to see what's new then back to waiting for the next update.

 

To put it short: I like the events, but I prefer the base content updates.

[Mike23Ua]

I disagree with this 150%, Smashing Gingerpig houses and having their leg less torsos crawl out clinging to their last bit of life has by far been the most entertaining thing I’ve seen happen in my entire time playing DST.

 

And I want them to provide the same kind of unique event this year with Hallowed Nights! 

Maybe have every night be a full moon, Ghosts and Werepigs should dominate an event based on Halloween.. a cool boss battle with a moving Totally Normal Tree Guardian, A totally normal tree Wormwood Skin. A Devils Pitchfork Skin. 

Ghosts could have their own Gingerpig inspired hunt, where you’ll see one, follow it.. it’ll float away and haunt into the ground, you’ll look around for the next ghost trail to follow.

TL:DR I don’t care that events are limited time because I can always set a server up to permanently being Hallowed Nights!

[MondayNight]

31 minutes ago, Mike23Ua said:

..Smashing Gingerpig houses and having their leg less torsos crawl out clinging to their last bit of life has by far been the most entertaining thing I’ve seen happen in my entire time playing DST.

[bruhmoment23]

Excuse me, but what the f*ck.

44 minutes ago, Mike23Ua said:

Smashing Gingerpig houses and having their leg less torsos crawl out clinging to their last bit of life has by far been the most entertaining thing I’ve seen happen in my entire time playing DST.

[ArubaroBeefalo]

we all know that this could happen xD

[Sinister_Fang]

3 hours ago, x0-VERSUS-1y said:

And one more thing am afraid of: that RoT doesn't actually have a heart/core to it, but was rather born from general desire of "broadly update DST with something to further maintain interest in it".

ANR kinda felt like that throughout most of it's development. It wasn't until near the end when a lot of the random additions like the fossils and the marble clockworks started to be tied together.

[MondayNight]

46 minutes ago, Sinister_Fang said:

ANR kinda felt like that throughout most of it's development. It wasn't until near the end when a lot of the random additions like the fossils and the marble clockworks started to be tied together.

Hope this will be the case with RoT as well.

Though - on the topic of ANR - there still remains the exploits and such issue alongside a problematic WorldGen (general wonky results for setups different than "default" - aka plants and animals appearing everywhere instead of their respective/native biomes; not much differences regarding various map sizes - also maybe have micro-map and gigantic map settings?!; contradictory results related to their setups - Trees set on "few" = vegetation overgrown: yep, 3 years later and this problem still persists, gj Klei; inability to use various presets aka preset = "x" | x= "SURVIVAL_TOGETHER", "MOD_MISSING", "SURVIVAL_TOGETHER_CLASSIC", "SURVIVAL_DEFAULT_PLUS", "COMPLETE_DARKNESS", "DST_CAVE", "DST_CAVE_PLUS" already existing at the back-end/code level, but am sure in partial stage of implementation as well - par example Cave-only worlds), mechanics insufficiently flashed-out like disease, a system to manage accumulating resources on long-lived servers inadvertently causing lag - i.e. Twiggy Trees (yet again related to faulty diseases system) and their spawned twigs, rot everywhere, etc. And much much more.

Again these are said so-called "the little things, underlining aspects, le plethora of small faults" persisting from ages ago, giving even now the feeling DST (sans RoT) isn't (and wasn't an any moment) really complete and cohesive. Many desired ideas apparently disrupted at a 80-90% implementation process.

[Moonatik]

I was interested by 2 points on 2 other games. 

On Cyberpunk 2077 and the fact that the devs works on something for the end game. I think it's great. How many times, in open world game, we're done after the last main quest ? So I love the idea. I hope for many exclusive things post end, in order to live the end more longer, especially on a Rpg. 

But some people thought it could be a waste of ressources. 

Same with Elden Ring. I like the cycle idea, and when we have the access to Ng+, Ng+1, ng+2, etc... I would like to see some changes. New bosses, new places, 2 or 3 different destinies for npcs, new objects, etc...

But some people thought it could be a waste too.

I totally disagree, these 2 points are so important and would make these games better. They're real contents, definitive, they serve the experience.

Maybe Klei could forgot events just this year, regarding all the reworks to come and all about RoT. Because at this rythm, when will we have the last rework ? This year ? Maybe they don't feel late, just because they're not late, after all. And we don't know what is ready... But if we could choose between RoT and events, who will choose events ? I like them anyway, but it's not the point. 

They're making big changes, changes that will create big changes. The possibilities with the sea are endless, I hope they saw very, very far in this idea. So I could pass on every 2020 events if I could have real content instead.

As someone said above, this feists period is over now, so back to real content, we want to know ! 

[me real life]

I've really never been a fan of events being treated as "wasted," "useless" content. Personally, they're one of my favorite parts of DST and they're the reason I've kept playing a single world since 2017 rather than simply making and dropping tons of worlds a couple hundred days in. One of the things I really appreciate is how they both give some new limited time content, and they push me towards older permanent content I would've never done otherwise.
With Hallowed Nights:
- I went out and sailed to the Lunar Islands solo for the first time, previously only having done so on pubs and worlds with friends.
- I spent full seasons in the marsh catching mosquitoes of all things for potions.
- I actively sought batilisks to kill for wings.
With Winter's Feast:
- I fought Klaus more than I had in the years he's been in the game.
- I made the Antlion's glass sculptures for the first time ever in all the time they've existed.
- I went out and fought the Malbatross, which is something I hadn't done in a legit world either.
Year of the Carrat even pushed me towards a consistent food source for the first time in this world (I basically foraged the whole time before,) and it had me feeding bunnyman carrots to a bird for the extra generic seed drop. Events are always pushing me towards content that I wouldn't have touched otherwise, and they leave some items and recipes behind for me to take advantage of for the rest of the world (such as mad science labs and gift wrap,) and I personally would be really sad if Klei sat them aside this year.

If anything, I feel like there should just be an option to change event when loading a world. That would allow event content to be permanent in any world if someone chooses. so some people's problem of "this content is limited time and thus wasted" might be fixed.

[Scrimbles]

Every time I see something like fishing and the winter's feast additions I tend to login, play for a half an hour, then quit out because there's nothing of any depth.

These events don't add any meaningful content to the game, just side attractions that you either do because there's nothing else to do, or you try once and ignore.

 

I mainly kinda like the Hallowed Nights event because it feels like it adds some content to the CORE game.

[Axelocke]

They're fun, but not permanent. I'm thankful for all the effort Klei puts into DST regardless, though I think they could easily get away with including a new skin bundle with the seasonal events themselves remaining the same. Seasonal skins are always super exciting, whether they are for characters or just structures.

I also understand that making events is a great way for the developers to take a break from developing the main game, and that's great! I hope they continue to have fun with what they're making.

 

(Year of the Carrat was fun for the first week, but now I don't see anybody doing it and the event menu music is driving me crazy, that, and considering the event probably took tons of time to develop the Carrat's A.I, the race mechanics, and animating a carrot-rat hybrid performing many different training tasks to improve it's stats makes me wish we had something more permanent from all this effort, like perhaps the already existing critters being able to participate. Just my take, though.)

[GenomeSquirrel]

Halloween: I love the jack o’laterns, totally normal tree potion, and tree decorations; but most of it gets stale fast.

Winter: convenient moggles and tams are great, I wish that the new oven didn’t need cheer; the mix between not knowing the recipes, it being temporary, and that particular mandatory ingredient made it a wasted feature.

Lunar new year: I like that they change them each year, but I haven’t had any fun with them. Year of the hound I tried 10 different tries but a footprint never appeared, so I abandoned the feature, although I think I did one public hunt which failed. I wasn’t playing during year of the pig. Rat was too passive, the rat plays the game while we just watch and built space fillers.

[NSAiswatchingus]

I only ever play the same long term world so the events don't feel all that limited to me. Having access to some part of all the events is great and I think that's the issue most people have with them. 

If every event permanently added another piece of content we'd all be thrilled for each one because it wouldn't feel like "wasted development time". Imagine if once Year of the Varg ended, Klei rebalanced and added the Lucky Whistle as a craftable item forever. After 2018's Halloween event the Mad Scientist Station was just another craftable station, Etc. When Klei made the Pig King minigame permanent they started moving in the right direction IMO. They don't need to make EVERYTHING from the events accessible year round, but leaving a piece of that fun for everybody, always, would only be a benefit. The multi IRL year spanning world owners that DO get to the enjoy the game like that should be the loudest voices behind getting that content to everyone. We're the ones that know how awesome it is.

Obviously some balance changes might need to happen to seasonal items, but I think bringing more of the seasonal content into being part of the base game is the way to go. 

[Mike23Ua]

I think the most important thing that you guys are missing is that these events are probably being worked on right now so that when the holidays actually go live the dev’s can simply push out the limited time events while dedicating all their Actual time over the holiday seasons to their friends and to their families.

The Difference between limited time content and permanent core game content is that they don’t actively have to actually sit around to “Fix” Limited time content for bugs & glitches like they would if the content was permanent.

Take WintersFeast 2019 as the perfect example- Xbox One had a horrible bug throughout most of that entire month where if you used the Tragic Torch Skin your Xbox Console itself would freeze up and power itself completely Off.

An extreme glitch that could probably cause harm to your console, Sure they could’ve maybe threw in a Hotfix and pulled the Torch skin out of the game until the issue was fixed, but by that point the Dev Team was already enjoying the holidays with their family.

Year of the Carrat on Xbox One has a less extreme glitch where your character continues to repeatedly talk and never shut up while racing your Carrat, something that I saw patch notes for on PC as being fixed but on Xbox I can say that it’s still not fixed.

Luckily.. the Torch skin crash was fixed as soon as the Dev team could figure out what was causing the crash.

But the TL:DR- Limited time content can be forgiven in being glitchy because it will be pulled from the game sometime later. Permanent core gameplay content has to be stable 24/7 so therefore glitches and bug fixes have to be done a lot more frequently.

Also: Don’t give me weird looks when I say I like crushing Gingerpigs and eating their Holiday spirit.. the game is rated 13+ and I love its more mature, darker, creepy vibe compared to your Rated E for Everyone children games.

Because I’ve said it before & I’ll say it again- Me Likey Da Spooky. 

[MrNaxeros]

I have feeling that for Klei there are two development periods:
- March-September - The calm one where there are no seasonal events and Klei can focus entirely on the main content;
- October-February - The chaotic one where there are both events and main content to be done. Best of all, the events cannot be delayed.

And let's not forget about Forge and Gorge. Those things can also come out at any time with extra content.

Honestly, I feel like time-limited updates are way too frequent for Klei to introduce new mainline content at a reasonable rate.

[Tranoze]

For you playing Don't Starve Together "alone", yes those event mean nothing.
But for us who have friend to play with in holidays, those events mean everything, heck as long as klei keep update those event i wont even care about character updates.

[ArubaroBeefalo]

14 minutes ago, Tranoze said:

For you playing Don't Starve Together "alone", yes those event mean nothing.
But for us who have friend to play with in holidays, those events mean everything, heck as long as klei keep update those event i wont even care about character updates.

i play alone 90% of the time and i enjoy the events :_ 

[Primalflower]

i think i side with the idea that these events, while cute and cool, don't add enough interesting stuff to hold my attention for more than a couple minutes at best by themselves. If i log in and play dst, it'll be for dst, not dst winters feast. 

[cantdeletethis]

its just like forge and gorge, stays for awhile later almost gone forever. nothing so different except scale of content

some will miss it, others will diss it

but its certain that devs should focus on regular content